6 Steps to Creating an Ideal Employer Profile

Create an Ideal employer profile in order to help more people into work

When it comes to reverse marketing, it’s important to get very clear on who your ideal employer is and create a profile based around them. In sales and marketing, this is called an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). But to make it easy, I have contextualized it to employment services and called in an Ideal employer profile (IEP). The more clarity you have about who your ideal employer is, company size, hiring process, characteristics and problems that they may have, that you can potentially solve, the easier it will be to communicate with them. Also, you will be able to speak their language, and they will know that you understand them and their struggles.

Step 1: Make a list of your “best” Employers Who is already on your employer database? Select the top 5 to 10. Is it mostly small business owners? Large organisations? Which types of people have you mostly dealt with? Sole traders? HR managers? Recruiters? And what industries do they work in? If you’re just starting out in employment services and don’t have a wide range of customers, then think about which type of businesses and organisations will benefit from what you offer? And what type of employers your colleagues are already working with. Step 2: Map out the types of industries and size In employment services, you usually work within a certain territory, So it’s vital to think about the top 5 industries in your region and become an expert in those domains.  For example, in the regional city of Wagga Wagga located in South-eastern NSW, the top five industries are health care/social assistance, retail trade, public administration, education, and construction. Now create a top 100 list of the company names in those industries, number of staff, and industry trends. Also, know the size of their business and how much they have grown over the years, this will give you an idea if they are growing and if there is a potential to place your jobseekers in there.

Step 3:  Find out about their hiring process Now that you have a list of your industries and top 100 companies you would like to work with, it’s good to also find out how these companies do their hiring process. Is it internal, or with an external recruiter? Who usually signs off on the budget to hire new staff? Is there more than one decision-maker in the hiring process? Do they have a diversity and inclusion manager? Who are the internal influencers and champions who work there that can influence a referral between yourself and the CEO? Map out all-important key stakeholders and develop a plan of how to reach them. Step 4: Investigate their problems and pain What are these businesses most common problems when it comes to staffing, recruitment and even productivity? Think about their pain points when it comes to the hiring process. Are they spending hours sifting through resumes? Do they pay big bucks to recruiters? How about the productivity in their team? If they are a small business, is the business owner working 80 hour weeks and neglecting their health and family? If there are no problems that you can help solve, then there is no sale. Step 5: Map out the job carving opportunities What type of businesses can you target in order to create a job that doesn’t exist or restructure a current position? Think about what is not happening in a business. For example, which industries need someone from the staff to cover reception when the receptionist goes on their lunch break? How about retailers? What are some duties that are taking a long time to do that are keeping staff away from productivity? Think about hospitality. What do the wait staff spend most of their time on when they should be serving customers? It’s important to be like an investigator and create the need that doesn’t exist yet, in order to create more opportunities for your jobseekers. And the small business owners working ridiculous hours and neglecting their health, do they even know about the 15 – 20-hour work capacity and wage subsidy support? Are they aware that you provide on the job support? These are all critical things to consider when creating a job opportunity and need.  Step 6: Get clear on the ideal employer characteristics Think about the characteristics that your ideal employers have? Perhaps they are compassionate people who want to make a difference in the world. Maybe they work for a company that puts people before profits. Is your ideal employer purpose-driven? Do they believe in diversity and inclusion? Are they someone who embrace hiring people with disabilities? Do they believe in second chances and will take a bet on an ex-convict? Are they open-minded and don’t discriminate against people with long career gaps? Make a list of all the attributes, and behaviours you would like in an ideal employer and be sure to go out there and meet the right ones.

Just remember, to be able to successfully reverse market, you need to take out the time and create a plan. The more clarity in the who, why, where, when and how, the more placement opportunities you will create.

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